What was worse, he wouldn’t even worry.
“There’s nothing here to hurt you, and I trust your choices,” were his words.
He trusted me. I always looked at it as though he didn’t care about me, but I was acting like a spoiled child. He trusted me.
And here I was, in deeper trouble than I had ever been before, with no one to help me, and without any idea of what to expect.
I sniffled and the scarred woman groaned in disgust.
The pounding of hooves drew closer as another horse caught up with ours. With the faintest hint of light from his goggles, I could see that it was Axton who had come up to ride beside us.
“We aren’t being followed, for the moment,” he announced without much volume. “I don’t know what sent that Lurcher off. He could have taken a few of us down, but he’s disappeared. Is she crying?”
The scarred woman grunted with distaste and I ignored them both. I was wishing that something would happen that would allow me to escape before I was even one step farther from home. I didn’t want to appear weak to these people, but my tears persisted and betrayed my strength.
What would my little brother think when his big sister didn’t come back?
I couldn’t see Axton’s expression, and I didn’t care to. All I knew was that he was there.
“Some spy,” he said and kicked his horse to a gallop, flying ahead of us.
I couldn’t have had any idea how long we rode, but my despair and fatigue were on equal footing when the sky began to lighten. We were on a road, by that point, with golden grass blanketing the flat land on either side. The trees were scattered behind us, and much farther beyond them, blue gray with distance, were a colossal set of familiar mountains. I had never seen them from this angle, but they were as familiar as my reflection. It was the border that encircled Haven Valley. My home was somewhere impossibly deep at their center.
Fields gave way for farms, and we passed many a tall wooden watchtower. Small streams crept under wooden bridges that we crossed, and when we rounded a modest orchard, the view opened to reveal the largest body of water I’d ever seen. I would never forget that moment for the rest of my life. It was the first time I’d seen the ocean.
Haven Valley had some decent sized lakes, but this put them all to shame. I couldn’t see the other shore no matter how hard I strained my eyes. The vast blue sea was breathtaking. The land sloped down to partially encircle a small, calm bay and a quaint town that sprawled not only on the land, but also over the water itself. Every building, from the small cottages to the few towering multi-leveled structures, was built with olive colored stone.
Farmers and sentries were the only people stirring at such an early hour, but neither paid us any attention as we made our way into the town. Streams snaked out to the bay, sprouting with green and yellow reeds. Tall plants and trees with fan shaped monocot leaves leaned overhead. I’d never seen such strangely shaped foliage. As we neared the town, my breath caught in my throat when I saw a creature I had only read about in books, an elephant, wading into one of the inlets beside a stream-front cottage.
I stared at it both with a mixture of fear and awe as we passed by, heading into the town. No one seemed to mind its presence.
Our packed dirt road became paved with tan and olive cobble stones, and by the time the first ray of sunlight touched the ground, we had wended into the shadows of houses, making our way toward the shore of the bay and the impressive keep that sat on the water beyond it.
A sign on a shop we passed said Breakwater on it. Rune had mentioned the name before. I figured that was where we were.
A flock of egrets soared away from the keep on the water and back toward land, passing over the
“There’s nothing here to hurt you, and I trust your choices,” were his words.
He trusted me. I always looked at it as though he didn’t care about me, but I was acting like a spoiled child. He trusted me.
And here I was, in deeper trouble than I had ever been before, with no one to help me, and without any idea of what to expect.
I sniffled and the scarred woman groaned in disgust.
The pounding of hooves drew closer as another horse caught up with ours. With the faintest hint of light from his goggles, I could see that it was Axton who had come up to ride beside us.
“We aren’t being followed, for the moment,” he announced without much volume. “I don’t know what sent that Lurcher off. He could have taken a few of us down, but he’s disappeared. Is she crying?”
The scarred woman grunted with distaste and I ignored them both. I was wishing that something would happen that would allow me to escape before I was even one step farther from home. I didn’t want to appear weak to these people, but my tears persisted and betrayed my strength.
What would my little brother think when his big sister didn’t come back?
I couldn’t see Axton’s expression, and I didn’t care to. All I knew was that he was there.
“Some spy,” he said and kicked his horse to a gallop, flying ahead of us.
I couldn’t have had any idea how long we rode, but my despair and fatigue were on equal footing when the sky began to lighten. We were on a road, by that point, with golden grass blanketing the flat land on either side. The trees were scattered behind us, and much farther beyond them, blue gray with distance, were a colossal set of familiar mountains. I had never seen them from this angle, but they were as familiar as my reflection. It was the border that encircled Haven Valley. My home was somewhere impossibly deep at their center.
Fields gave way for farms, and we passed many a tall wooden watchtower. Small streams crept under wooden bridges that we crossed, and when we rounded a modest orchard, the view opened to reveal the largest body of water I’d ever seen. I would never forget that moment for the rest of my life. It was the first time I’d seen the ocean.
Haven Valley had some decent sized lakes, but this put them all to shame. I couldn’t see the other shore no matter how hard I strained my eyes. The vast blue sea was breathtaking. The land sloped down to partially encircle a small, calm bay and a quaint town that sprawled not only on the land, but also over the water itself. Every building, from the small cottages to the few towering multi-leveled structures, was built with olive colored stone.
Farmers and sentries were the only people stirring at such an early hour, but neither paid us any attention as we made our way into the town. Streams snaked out to the bay, sprouting with green and yellow reeds. Tall plants and trees with fan shaped monocot leaves leaned overhead. I’d never seen such strangely shaped foliage. As we neared the town, my breath caught in my throat when I saw a creature I had only read about in books, an elephant, wading into one of the inlets beside a stream-front cottage.
I stared at it both with a mixture of fear and awe as we passed by, heading into the town. No one seemed to mind its presence.
Our packed dirt road became paved with tan and olive cobble stones, and by the time the first ray of sunlight touched the ground, we had wended into the shadows of houses, making our way toward the shore of the bay and the impressive keep that sat on the water beyond it.
A sign on a shop we passed said Breakwater on it. Rune had mentioned the name before. I figured that was where we were.
A flock of egrets soared away from the keep on the water and back toward land, passing over the
Similar Books
